Improvement in elevated railways



1 C. CLARKE. Elevated Railways. 10,153,806 i Patented Aug.4,l87.4.

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THOMAS C. CLARKE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO E CLARKE,REEVES & CO., OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN ELEVATED RAILWAVS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 153,806, dated August 41874; application filed March 19, 1873.

To all whom it may concern;-

Beit known that I, THOMAS C. CLARKE, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, haveinvented an Elevated Railway, of which the following is a specification:

My invention relates to that class of elevated railways the supports ot'which span the street; and the object ot my invention is to so constructsuch a railway that the supporting structure shall be comparatively'light and inexpensive, an object which I attain by supporting theroadway by and between longitudinal truss-frames, oneof which isdirectly above the supporting column, as explained hereafter, and asshown in the accompanying drawing.

The railway consists of a series of self-contained structures placedacross the street at intervals, and connected together between theseintervals by guides, so as to form supports for continuous roadways.

Each structure, an end view of which is shown in Figure l, a side viewin Fig. 2, and plan view in Fig. 3, is supported on four pillars, A, twoof which rest on suitable foundations on one sidewalk of a street, andtwo on the opposite sidewalk, as shown in Fig. 1.

The end frame of each structure consists of two opposite posts, A A,Fig. l, connected together by the upper chord B and lower chord C, whichspan the street, and which, with the braces and tie-rods shown intheJdrawing, form a transverse truss-frame. These two end frames of thestructure are connected together by two setsot' three longitudinaltruss-frames, D, D', and D, ofthe character shown in Fig. 2, two of thepillars A A forming the end posts of one of the frames D, this being thespecial feature of my invention, and these posts and a series ofintermediate posts b b being con nected together by an upper chord, m,and lower chord n, and the diagonals and counterdiagonals common toother trussframes. On each side of the central longitudinal trussframe Dof each set is another truss-frame of precisely similar character,having end posts secured to the upper andlower chords B and C of thetransverse frames, and forming part of the same. In the spaces H Hbetween these three longitudinal trussframes are the two roadways H H',the longitudinal beams .rm of which are supported by the upper chords BB of the opposite end frames, and by intermediate transverse beams I Isecured to the posts ofthe three longitudinal truss-frames D, D', andD", as shown in the transverse section, Fig. 4.

By the plan described above four roadways are formed, two on each sideof the street, so that there may be two lines ot' rails for freightcarsand two for passenger cars. This arrangement may be adopted inlocalities where the rapid transportation of merchandise is a matter ofimportance 5 but I prefer to make one roadway only on each side of thestreet by adopting the plan illustrated in Fig. 5, where there is noroadway to overhang the sidewalk, as in Fig. l, the single roadway H oneach side being above the street.

I claim as my invention- The roadway supported by and betweenlongitudinal truss-frames, one of which is directly above thesupporting-pillars, as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS C. CLARKE.

Witnesses:

WM. A. STEEL, HUBERT HowsoN.

